It may seem bizarre to the outsider, but Northern Ireland motorcycling fans aren't joking when they suggest turning the land around the Maze prison into a bike track. What more fitting memorial, they ask, for Co Antrim folk hero Joey Dunlop, who died seven weeks ago?
If this wasn't enough to illustrate the longstanding love affair Northern Ireland enjoys with all things internally combustible, events at Stormont next weekend will drive the point home. The Belfast City Open and Direct Millennium Motorsport Festival will see the historic seat of power transformed into a venue heaving with horse-power as Formula One cars, motorcycles and karts race around the castle, their drivers and riders making sure to break hard as they turn left around the statue of Edward Carson.
The man behind the festival, local broadcaster and former saloon car racer, Alan "Plum" Tyndall, got his inspiration for the event from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. "We didn't want to call it the Belfast Festival of Speed because of negative connotations with joyriding or general speeding on the roads," he says. "It is about celebrating the great tradition of motorsports in Northern Ireland, a family day out that will attract anyone interested in motor vehicles of all kinds".
The tradition goes back a long way. Tyndall can remember his own father describing the scenes in the 1950s when the citizens of Belfast would desert the city to see the likes of Stirling Moss take to the roads around Dundrod for the Ulster Grand Prix.
The RAC Tourist Trophy run on the Ards Circuit between 1928 and 1936 drew crowds of up to half a million. Today, the North West 200, run around the Portrush triangle in Co Antrim, attracts tens of thousands. The sights, sounds and smells of racing prove an irresistible cocktail for the North's knowledgeable fans.
Stars such as Eddie Irvine may grab the headlines these days, but it was men working in the garages around Northern Ireland who ensured the motoring tradition was built on solid foundations.
"We have a fantastic tradition of engineers, guys who didn't necessarily have any formal training, but came up with amazing things in their garages at home," explains Tyndall. Among those breaking technological barriers in Northern Ireland were John Dunlop, credited with the development of the pneumatic tyre, Rex McCandless, who designed the featherbed bike frame for the Norton team, and John Crossle, the Holywood-based car designer who exported his Crossle models all over the world. He turned to building cars when he couldn't afford to buy one. Perhaps most influential of them all was Harry Ferguson, Northern Ireland's original boy racer. Although his name is associated with tractor design, he was a top motor cycle and car racer in the early 1900s and it was his involvement in the development of four-wheel drive vehicles and his help in pushing the Road Racing Act through the Stormont parliament in 1922 which secured his place in motorsport history. This legislation made it possible for public roads all over Northern Ireland to be closed for racing events, a major factor in the enduring popularity of motorsports.
Northern Ireland, with a population of just over 1.5 million, has thrown up an astonishing number of international racing champions since the turn of the century. Newly blond Eddie Irvine is the most obvious, but the festival programme is packed with other racing names from past decades. Those who have competed in Formula One Grand Prix include Kenneth Acheson from Cookstown, Co Tyrone; Martin Donnelly from Belfast; Damien Magee from the Falls Road, and five-time Grand Prix winner John Watson. At Stormont on Monday, Watson will drive the Jordan-Ford 191 he helped to develop 10 years ago. It is the first contemporary Formula One team car to be run in Northern Ireland. "The sight of our F1 cars driving along that famous avenue up to Stormont will be quite extraordinary," says Eddie Jordan.
Other motorsport disciplines are just as well represented in Northern Ireland. Ormond Christie from Co Antrim is five times world Hot Rod champion, Trevor Roberts from Lurgan is the reigning karting world champion, while Northern Ireland's motorcycling hall of fame boasts riders such as Jeremy McWilliams and Robert Dunlop, brother of Joey, who recorded 26 victories in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. Watson, Roberts, Irvine and Dunlop will all be present at the festival, along with other international motorsporting legends past (Stirling Moss) and present (Jarno Trulli).
There is a new generation of riders and drivers coming up too. Current champion Gordon Crockard (21) talks infectiously about his own discipline of motorcycling. "It's the buzz you get out of it, the high. You don't need alcohol or drugs because it makes you feel so good," he says.
Like many in the sport, Crockard became involved from a young age. His father Dave was Irish Motocross champion in the 1960s and 1970s. He thinks that a race track in memory of Joey Dunlop at the Maze would be "brilliant". "At the moment we don't have the facilities in Northern Ireland to host championship tarmacadam events. I have to go and practise in the UK. If we had our own track here, it would give young people something to go for," he says.
Racing in Northern Ireland is not without its detractors though, and as the death toll from motorcycling rises - the latest victims included Gary Dynes and Andrew McClean, who died after a pile-up during the Monaghan races over a week ago - some competitors have expressed concern for the future of the sport. However, the consensus among competitors appears to be that they know the risks and are willing to take them for the love of their sport. And commentators agree that as long as the fans keep watching from the roadside, the events are likely to continue. Speeding up the majestic Prince of Wales Drive at Stormont in a rally car last week, last year's Irish tarmac rally champion Ian Greer from Hillsborough says that Northern Irish fans are the most passionate in the world. "The enthusiasts are more committed here than anywhere else. They all become armchair experts wanting to tell this rider or that rider how they should have performed," he says.
Veteran racer Ronnie Adams, (84) is also at Stormont to help launch the festival. He and his co-driver Derek Johnston (78) drove to victory in the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally in a Mark 7 Jaguar. "It was my fifth Monte Carlo," Adams remembers. "I had been racing for 20 years by then . . . everybody took an interest.". And motorsport can still grab the public's imagination now, he insists. "The fact that the government is allowing cars and bikes to race around Stormont shows just how important motorsport is to Northern Ireland. It's a thrilling prospect".
As he chats about old racing times, the former Monte Carlo champ is told by organisers that he and Johnston will be driving a replica Mark 7 Jaguar up the hill at Stormont as part of the festival parade next Monday in a recreation of their 1956 victory. The eyes of this genial octogenarian sparkle like a little boy. "That is just marvellous," he beams.
The Belfast City Open and Direct Millennium Motorsport Festival runs from Friday to Monday. Tickets cost £15 for adults and £7.50 for children and OAPS. For more information phone the ticket hotline 08700 722 100 (from the North) and 0044 8700 722 100 (from the Republic).
